New York, May 21, 2026, 10:06 EDT
- Quantum Computing Inc. shares rose in early Nasdaq trading, moving with a broader quantum-computing rally after a U.S. government funding push for the sector.
- The company was not among the recipients named in Reuters’ report on the $2 billion U.S. quantum investment package.
- QUBT’s last cited trade was $10.73, up about 12.2%, on volume of nearly 16 million shares.
Quantum Computing Inc. shares jumped in early trading on Thursday as investors swept into quantum-computing stocks after the U.S. government agreed to take equity stakes — ownership positions — in several companies in the sector. QUBT recently traded at $10.73, up $1.17, or about 12.2%, with volume of about 16.0 million shares.
The move mattered because it put a fresh government bid under a corner of the market that has traded more on promise than profit. Quantum computing, which uses quantum physics to attack calculations that may be too hard for ordinary computers, remains early-stage, but Washington’s backing sharpened investor focus on who may benefit and who may be left out.
Nasdaq was open for regular trading on Thursday; the exchange lists its normal session at 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, and Memorial Day, the next listed 2026 market holiday, falls on May 25.
Reuters reported that the Trump administration agreed to take $2 billion in equity stakes across nine quantum-computing companies, including a new IBM venture. The U.S. Department of Commerce said IBM would receive $1 billion to set up a company focused on making chips for quantum computers, while GlobalFoundries would get $375 million to build a domestic factory for quantum components.
QCI was not among the firms named in that Reuters report. Other named companies included D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing, both of which are closer to the government funding headline and rose more sharply in early trade. Rigetti was recently up about 21.4% and D-Wave about 21.8%, while IBM rose about 4.9%.
The rally still reached QUBT because investors often trade the group as a basket when a policy or technical milestone appears to validate the sector. The company’s latest SEC-listed event was not a funding award: a May 18 Form 8-K said QCI had presented an investor presentation at a conference and posted it to its website.
QCI’s more concrete story is its balance sheet and acquisition-led growth. The company said last week that first-quarter revenue rose to about $3.7 million from $39,000 a year earlier, driven mainly by the February acquisition of Luminar Semiconductor and, to a lesser extent, the March acquisition of NuCrypt.
Chief Executive Yuping Huang said the company made “significant operational progress” in the quarter and that photonics — using light on chips to move or process information — was gaining importance because of low power use and room-temperature operation. Quantum Computing Inc.
QCI also reported a first-quarter net loss of $4.1 million, or 2 cents a share, and operating expenses of $19.8 million, up 139% from a year earlier. It ended March with about $1.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments, plus a backlog of about $16 million.
That cash pile gives QCI time to build, but the stock’s valuation leaves little room for slow execution. Its market value was about $2.4 billion at the latest cited trade, while its price-to-earnings ratio was negative because the company remains loss-making.
The risk is that Thursday’s bid fades if investors decide the U.S. funding package benefits named recipients more than the wider group. Quantum computers still face hard engineering problems, including error rates that limit practical performance, and Reuters noted that estimates for when useful machines arrive vary widely.
Still, the policy signal has changed the tape for now. Matthew Kinsella, chief executive of peer Infleqtion, told Reuters the investment helped validate that quantum computing was “coming much faster than anybody thinks.” Reuters
